Stocks soared today after House Speaker John Boehner offered a six-week debt-ceiling increase if President Obama would talk about budget and deficit issues. Obama said he'd prefer a long-term deal but would accept a temporary one to give Boehner time to deal with the Tea Party. Boehner's offer came as Treasury Secretary John Lew told Congress that failure to raise the debt ceiling could cause "irrevocable damage" to the financial markets and economy. Is this a free market economy, or a "free the market" economy?

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"We need to reopen the government and pay the nation's bills, no strings attached."—Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat

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Tea Party making CEOs hate GOP more than Obama

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Most business executives ante up for memberships in trade associations. Among the supposed benefits: lobbying clout in Washington. But business-lobbying groups find their traditionally warm relationship with Republicans has grown chilly due to Tea Party influence and the debt-ceiling battle. Business groups are terrified about a debt default, while many Tea Partiers shrug it off. Things are so bad business organizations may give to Tea Party opponents in the next election.

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"There clearly are people in the Republican Party at the moment for whom the business community and the interests of the business community—the jobs and members they represent—don't seem to be their top priority."—N.F.I.B head Dan Danner

"We are looking at ways to counter the rise of an ideological brand of conservatism that, for lack of a better word, is more anti-establishment than it has been in the past. We have come to the conclusion that sitting on the sidelines is not good enough."—David French, the top lobbyist at the National Retail Federation

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Made in America: Lots of millionaires

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Mexican telecom magnet Carlos Slim may top Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on the world's richest list, but if you want to become a mere millionaire, it's still best to start by living in the United States. We're really good at producing new ones. In fact, of the 1.8 million new millionaires minted worldwide over the past year, 1.7 million were made in the U.S., according to Credit Suisse. Rising asset values, especially stocks and homes, were a key factor. The U.S. now has about 13.2 million millionaires. France was second on the list, creating 287,000, and Germany was third at 221,000. The biggest loser? Japan, down 1.3 million millionaires, to about 2.65 million.

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The pipeline no one wants to build

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Rising home values haven't only helped add to the millionaire roll: the real estate recovery has helped reduce new foreclosure filings, because homeowners in trouble now find it easier to sell. The number of homes on the path to foreclosure hit a seven-year low in the third quarter. The number of new foreclosure proceedings dropped by 13 percent from the second quarter, and were down 39 percent from last year's third quarter.

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"It's looking really good that there are not more [foreclosures] coming into the pipeline. Barring any other economic shock to the system, we expect that to bode well going forward."—RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist

Troubles with the federal health exchange web site have prevented many people from signing up for health insurance, and some experts warn that this is not just a teething pain in the system that went live 10 days ago. They say the requirements for the government site are so demanding it could take many months to fix all the snags so the system can meet what has proven to be huge demand. But don't worry, the insurance industry is stepping in to help people enroll in policies on insurance-company sites. Many of the policies available there are indistinguishable from those on the government site, and eager insurance shoppers are flocking to industry sites. Independence Blue Cross, for instance, reports visits to its site have quintupled, and insurers are providing applicants with online tools to help them figure out what they can't figure out on the Obamacare site.

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"What was supposed to be 'simple as buying airline tickets on a website' has turned into trying to find a needle in a haystack."—Barry Sloane, CEO of Newtek, a health insurance brokerage for small businesses